'Python fever': Hunting for snakes in the Florida Everglades

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Donna Kalil slowly makes her way through thick grass as she hunts for pythons on Thursday, March 30, in Homestead, Florida. She was among a group working to rid Everglades National Park and surrounding areas of the non-native species of pythons that eats vegetation and preys on wildlife.

Hide Caption

1 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Kalil shows off the skin of a python she found in a previous hunt. "They're everywhere at every time," she says. "It's just a luck of the draw."

Hide Caption

2 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Before heading to her next hunting spot, Kalil chats with fellow python hunter Tom Rahill.

Hide Caption

3 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Along with a pistol and knife, Kalil carries a Venezuelan cowboy stick with her on the hunt.

Hide Caption

4 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Kalil presses on as the afternoon sun gets warmer. "It's like a python fever," she says. "You don't want to give up until you find one."

Hide Caption

5 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Kalil sports snake earrings during the hunt.

Hide Caption

6 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Animal trails wind through the grass in Homestead.

Hide Caption

7 of 8

Photos:Searching the Everglades for pythons

Kalil cools off at the edge of a canal. Not only is the heat constant, hunters have to be wary of poison ivy and potentially dangerous wildlife.

Hide Caption

8 of 8

Story highlights

Florida's Everglades is a vast area with a climate perfect for pythons to hide and thrive

Donna Kalil among hunters trying to rid non-native species that preys on wildlife

Homestead, Florida (CNN)Donna Kalil couldn't hear a python slithering in the grass with the wind blowing. But spotting a tunnel-shaped snake trail, she disappeared into the cattails hunting for one.

The Kendall, Florida,resident carried a stick. A knife and 9 mm handgun were attached to her belt.

A real estate investor-turned-amateur python hunter, she spotted a ribbon snake clinging to a leaf. She hoped it was a harbinger of success in her quest to find a Burmese python in the Florida Everglades.

Kalil, 54, was among a group of python hunters Thursdayworking to rid Everglades National Park and surrounding areas of the non-native species of pythons that prey on wildlife.

The district hopes the hunters kill many pythons. But if Kalil finds a python, it would be the first snake she will have ever killed. "I'm not really happy about it," she said. So, what's a python hunter to do?

Hunters the best solution

The pilot program follows python challenges run by another agency that led to the capture and killing of more than 174 Burmese pythons across Florida in monthlong competitions in 2013 and 2016. Hunters from the Irula tribe in India also separately caught many pythons.

The Burmese python is native to Southeast Asia. It was first discovered in the Everglades in the late 1970s and began appearing on water management district land in 2005, said LeRoy Rodgers, an invasive species biologist with the water management district.

The python runs wild with no natural predators in the Florida Everglades.

The snakes, which have no natural predators in the region, were likely introduced into the Everglades after a significantrelease, he said. That release was either accidental or intentional, University of Florida researchers say.

The Everglades, known as the river of grass, is a vast area with a climate perfect for the pythons to hide and thrive. There are no precise population figures, but there are believed to be thousands living in the ecosystem in Miami-Dade County, Rodgers said.

A 2012 study by Virginia Tech University, Davidson College and the US Geological Survey found that pythons caused the populations of rabbits and foxes to vanish and the numbers of raccoons, opossums and bobcats to drop by as much as 99% in the Everglades.

The giant constrictors have alsobeen discovered farther north in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The water district has tried to cull the population in a several ways, including dedicating a staff member to hunting the pythons since 2006, Rodgers said.

"We really haven't found any tool that works better than human hunters going out in the field looking for them," he said of the snakes that can grow to about 17 feet long and weigh up to 150 pounds.

Not in it for the money

The water district program will pay $8.10 an hour for up to eight hours of hunting a day. A python measuring 4 feet fetches an additional $50. Each additional foot will draw $25 more. Hunters can make an extra $100 if they kill a python guarding a nest.

Stickers from previous python hunts adorn the back of Donna Kalil's SUV.

Kalil planned to use her earnings for gas money and to buy gadgets for python hunting such as a drone and spotlights for her sport utility vehicle. But she's not in it for the money, she said.

"It's about getting out there and trying to make a difference to the wildlife that we find," she said.

Kalil wore camouflage pants and rain boots. A slender woman, she hoped the Velcro wrapped around a wooden st